A backyard ultra has no finish line, only a bell. Every hour, on the hour, the runners set off on a loop of 6.7 km; anyone who fails to be back and ready for the next start is out, and the race ends when one person completes a lap that nobody else does. At York Farm in Lusaka this week that person was Cosmas Bwalya, who ran his 32nd lap alone to win Zambia’s race in the 2026 Backyard Ultra World Team Championship, News Diggers reports — 214.6 km over 32 hours.
The previous Zambian best, according to the results cited by the paper, was 30 laps, set by Winstone Mwale. Bwalya was not the only runner to pass it: Alick Mashowo finished second on 31 laps (207.9 km), also beyond the old record, and Joseph Mumba was third on 24 laps. The paper’s full report, including the field size and the conditions, is behind its paywall, and it does not give the race dates.
Tennessee next?
The team championship format sees each country’s runners compete simultaneously at home, with national totals compared across the world. News Diggers reports that Bwalya’s tally may qualify him for the 2027 Backyard Ultra World Individual Championship in Tennessee in the United States, subject to confirmation by the organisers. No comment from Bwalya himself appears in the visible portion of the report, and the paper does not say how Zambia’s combined total compares with other national teams in the championship.
The result adds a second Zambian sporting footnote to a week otherwise dominated by football: Lusaka Brief reported on Wednesday that Ken Sekeletu had retained his boxing title in Tenerife.
Sources: News Diggers, “Bwalya sets national record at Backyard Ultra World Championship” (21 Oct 2026).